“A fictional biography” is a phrase that usually doesn’t work when it comes to films. Of course, when telling the story of a real person or event, some dramatic license is necessary and sometimes warranted. The new film, “Shirley,” tells the story of horror writer Shirley Jackson that features events that never took place. And that is just fine. Jackson is best known for her 1960 horror novel

Given the praise showered on “Us,” the latest by Jordan Peele, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is the same movie I saw as everyone else, a movie that I found neither as original nor as gripping as the director’s previous film “Get Out.” Or maybe I missed the entire point, whatever it was?

A middle-class African American family arrives at their vacation home, in a